K Can Showdown – 11 Mini Suppressors Put Through Head-To-Head Testing

Video Overview

11 mini suppressors (also known as K cans) put in head to head testing to determine the best mini suppressor. We've done a lot of suppressor testing, but this was one of the most interesting yet. We rated suppressors based on sound suppression, size & weight, modularity and back pressure. We tested suppressors from SilencerCo, B&T, YHM, Otter Creek Labs, Innovative Arms, PWS, Griffin, AAC, and HUXWRX.

Video Chapters

00:00 - Intro
01:29 - HOST USED FOR TEST
01:46 - SUPPRESSORS USED
02:42 - BACK PRESSURE DATA
02:55 - TEST PREDICTIONS
05:41 - Unsuppressed
05:47 - Grunt-M - Innovative Arms
06:11 - R556A1 - KGM
06:35 - Flow 556K - Hurxwrx
07:06 - 212 Mini - Surefire
07:45 - Polonium K - Otter Creek Labs
08:12 - Rotex 556 Mini-K - B&T
08:50 - Fat Cat - YHM
09:51 - Velos LBP 556K - SilencerCo
10:38 - BDE - PWS
11:11 - Explorr - Griffin
12:01 - Mini-4 - AAC
14:58 - WINNERS: SOUND SUPPRESSION
18:25 - WINNER: SIZE & WEIGHT
20:01 - BACK PRESSURE: VELOS vs HUXWRX

Video Transcription

Hey everybody, Rob Orgel with Silencer Syndicate. In today's video I wanted to go head to head and compare the mini cans or what we might call cake cans on one of my favorite configurations. Now in an earlier video we spoke to what cake cans are and what they're for. And let's be fair to not compare them to full size suppressors. Now I might have some guesses at which one is my favorite, but when we do the breakdown in the workbench we're going to include a lot more information, more than just how it felt or how loud it was on the end of the gun. We're going to include weight, barrel length restrictions, is it 6mm rated, and many more topics that I think are going to be valuable as you decide which cake can is best for you. But first let me just kind of touch this real quick. Cake cans are tiny. For me I think they belong on smaller guns. Tiny gun, tiny suppressor, keep the overall package small. Why is my gun so tiny? Because I'm doing vehicle operations or clearing rooms. That's why I want my gun so tiny. So it's not for taking all the bite out of the bag, it's just for not being so concussive inside rooms or vehicles. Because an unsuppressed 5.56 inside of a closed vehicle is catastrophic. Having a suppressor on the end of that gun really goes a long way, especially in the closed spaces. So I'm not really a big fan of having a 16 inch barrel and a 4 inch suppressor. I'd rather have a 16 inch barrel and a 6 inch, 8 inch suppressor and get maximum sound suppression because length doesn't matter so much when I'm running a full size rifle. That's just my opinion, you're allowed to have a different opinion, and you're allowed to do whatever you want with your case suppressor. I just want to clarify that in this video we're going to spend our time on this 11.5 inch Daniel Defense. So our host for today is a complete factory Daniel Defense pistol. The only modifications I've made is the charging handle and the trigger and a couple other little stuff. But other than that, it is the typical over gas Daniel Defense rifle. So on some of these higher back pressure, you're going to see me get gassed out a bit. So now let's talk about which suppressors we brought out for testing. Everything I could find within my collection that I currently own that fit between the 4 to 6 inch frame, I decided would be fair to put in the case suppressor video. So let's start from left to right. We've got the Grunt Mini, which is a full back pressure suppressor. We've got the Polonium 556K. We've got the Velos 556K. This is the Surefire 212 Mini. This is KGM R556A1, which is their Mini reduced back pressure suppressor. This is the B&T Rotex 556K. Huxworks Flow K. The Griffin Armament Explorer. The YHM Fat Cat. The PWS BDE 556 where we've removed this baffle stack in order to bring it into the class of the Ks. And then of course I've got the old school AAC M4 Mini. We're going to put these guys head to head. We're not going to do back pressure. We already have all that data on our website. Feel free to check that out as well as a lot of the other data we're going to produce in today's video. You will find on our website, because it will be too much information for me to cover all at once. So I'm going to cover the wave points. But before I go into this test, I want to tell you my predictions. First, I don't love Huxworks. As far as back pressure goes, they're great. As far as sound goes, they're brutal. Again, K cans, keep that in mind.

My real bet is on the Silencer Velos 556K. That suppressor, I mean so far in testing, it has been one of the best performing reduced back pressure silencers. I mean, it's up there with the Huxworks. And from my experiences so far, I haven't done head to head yet. But from my experiences so far, it is very pleasant to shoot, given its sound reduction. And it's a deep pitch. So I really like that suppressor. I'm betting this is going to be the best performer today overall. I don't know if tests will show. The ones I'm most curious about, however, I do like the Rotex K, because overall, it's one of the smallest and lightest. So if we're talking the best roll of a K, this might be it. It is a higher back pressure. If I remember correctly, it barks a bit. We'll see when we put them head to head. Now these two intrigue me quite, actually these three intrigue me quite a bit. And there are some of our newer suppressors. Why they intrigue me quite a bit is because the BDE suppressor has a lot of the things I look for, and I have not yet tested it in the short configuration, nor head to head with the other guys. So I'm excited to see how it performs today. The YHM Fat Cat, I do know that it's a bit high on the back pressure. But given the extra expansion area and keeping it short, I mean, that's a nifty concept that nobody else is doing. So I'm hoping this sounds more like a full-size suppressor. And the last one that interests me a lot today is also one of my newest ones, and that's the Griffin Explorer. Why I'm so interested in it is because it's not really sold as a K suppressor. And once I got it, I realized how tiny it was. I didn't expect it to be so small, and looking at measurements on a website is kind of misleading. When I lined it up with the other suppressors, I decided that that should go in the mix of the Ks, and it is advertised as a full-size suppressor. So I'm wondering if it performs like a full size, but fits in the class of the K. Having said that, let's begin our testing. But before we do, like, comment, subscribe. It's free. It doesn't cost anything, and it really helps our channel. Even the guy who keeps saying pizza and for the algorithm, those comments help. And some of you guys have come up with some really cool ideas that we have not yet thought of. And one of them was about back pressure on muzzle devices. And when I saw that comment, I was like, no, muzzle devices don't cause back pressure. But I tested it because he brought it up, and he was right, which led me into a whole other lineage of tests because someone else thought of something I have not. So all of your comments mean a lot to us. We do our best to check in on them. And even if you just say for the algorithm or pizza or I love kitty cats, whatever it is you put in there, that tells YouTube that you're interested in engaging with us and it puts it in front of more people. And then we can educate more people about buying the right silencers. So please like, comment, subscribe. It really does go a long way for us. If you really want to promote us, hop onto our website and check out our coffee cups and our hats. They're not very expensive. That money makes it directly to the testing, ammunition, and range time. Let's start our testing.

Okay, this is the Grunt Mini, the first of our mini cans, high gas back pressure.

Wow.

That was a ton of gas. That was like slap in the face with gas. Ejected hard forward, not pleasant to shoot. I'm going to stop it too. I don't like shooting that.

Quiet though. Yeah. For what it is, relatively quiet.

All right. That's the first of the Ks. Okay. This is the KGM 556A1 suppressor. I wish it wasn't proprietary on the mount, but it is a low back pressure suppressor. Much softer shooting on this suppressor, ejected in the right direction. Still a little bit loud. I mean, but it's a case suppressor. So all things considered, that's a good suppressor. I wish it didn't have a proprietary mount. I wish it was a little bit quieter. Let's switch cans. Okay, here we go. Flow K suppressor. I like this suppressor a lot for its back pressure, proprietary mount, and it's not very quiet. So minus the proprietary mount and lack of sound reduction. Great can.

It sure does make for a soft shooter because of that low back pressure, but it's spicy on the ears. It ejects just right and it's recoil reduction, no gas in the face. I'll say this suppressor truly shines on low back pressure.On to the next can. Okey dokey.

So this is the very old Surefire Mini.

I expect gas in the face like the Grunt Mini.

It's just a high back pressure suppressor. It's tiny, not terribly quiet, and high on the back pressure from my memory.

My memory serves me correct. Yes, high on back pressure, not particularly quiet, like Huxworks not quiet, and high back pressure.

You're really going to have to tune your gun if this is the kind of suppressor you want to run. You're going to need an adjustable gas block or something to make that tane because it's too much.

Okay, on to the next. Now we're stepping into Rob's happier space with hub compatibility. The rest of the suppressors we're going to be testing today on the Ks and on the short is going to be hub friendly suppressors. This is the Polonium 556K.

High back pressure, gas in the face, forward ejecting, but sound wise isn't so bad. It's not quiet, but it doesn't sound like a tiny can.

All righty, the Rotex 556K.

This suppressor is very tiny. The Inconel is light. The titanium is way light.

Only two baffles though, so keep that in mind.

Extremely high gas back pressure. Just out in the face, I'm sure the video captured. There was a white cloud that hovered especially on the shot one or two. I can't remember. I mean, I felt it hit me in my mustache beard area. It is a very high back pressure suppressor. It needs to be mitigated for sure for that close quarters rifle, especially the shorter than this. All righty, here we go. YHM fat cap. I'm intrigued by the suppressor. I hope it performs the way that I'm thinking it's going to because this is a nifty silencer.

Sounded good. Yeah, I might even try that one without my ears on. Pull your ears off. I'll run another. You ready? Yep, go for it.

Yeah, I mean, that's not bad at all. I'll try one. Yeah, it's... I'm hoping it sounds like a full size silencer.

Ooh, ouch. I should not have done that.

Yeah, I'm not doing that again. I'm five feet away. It's not too bad, but probably behind the gun is probably a lot more intense. Yeah, that's way too much. I was hoping it performed like a full size silencer. Not quite that good. Definitely high on the back pressure. We already know that from our back pressure test, but I was hoping it'd be a little bit quieter. I mean, it's still quiet for a K. It's still quiet for a K, but I don't think I'm going to do that ever again. This one you might find yourself taking your ears off.

I'll keep them off. Well, I'm going to put mine back on real quick.

Coming up on a... I don't want to go to slide lock.

So I put a fresh mag in so that we don't have a slide lock happen. All right, this one you might be able to do without ears. Here we go.

F*** that.

Ouch. Ouch. I'll tell you what. This thing shoots soft and it's ejecting just the right way. I mean, the back pressure on this thing is like... It's like the Hux works and I've tested it with the test, the back pressure testing we do. It is similar and in some cases better than the Hux works, but it sounds a lot better. It's still a K-Cam, but I'm pretty sure this one is my favorite.

This is the BDE in the short configuration.

Should be interesting to see how this one performs. You going to pull your ears off for shot two? Not shot one, shot two. Here we go. Okay.

Not too bad. Not too bad? It's very high back pressure. I feel the gases in my face. I feel the high recoil. I mean, I did just test the V-Lose 556K and that's so low back pressure and so soft. Probably the direct comparison isn't fair, but this thing sound wise was good, huh? Yeah, sound wise is good. And no barrel length restriction. So this is the Griffin Explorer.

I'm excited about this because this is more like designed of a full size suppressor. So I'm thinking maybe it's going to sound good. If you want to take your ears off on shot two, you tell me what you think. Here we go.

Not bad. Not as good as the BDE, but the BDE performed better. Yeah, but it still feels good.

Yeah, it's a compact little can. It's cool because it's so compact and the Explorer gives you the hub system. I dig that full auto rated, no barrel length. This is a good silencer, but I did get slapped in the face with gas.

So I mean, and you know how much I hate getting slapped in the face with gas. So I'm going to pull this whole system off, switch out because we got one more. I got a thread on the AAC M4 Mini. There's something about this silencer just because maybe the chapter of my life it's from, but like those little slits down the side of it, I like the AAC old look, but I'm sure it's not going to perform great by comparison to the new stuff, but it's just, it's cool because of the, the iconic chapter.

Gas in the face, choked me up a little bit, ejected forward. How'd it sound? Definitely louder. Loud. Yeah. All right. We're doing a K off. It's somewhere between the Velos, the fat cat and the BDE. We can't decide which of these three is our favorite. So we're going to run one more test to pick our favorite of the Ks. K off on the Velos K. Yeah, better than last time. That first round pop. It's a big deal. And of the three, that's the only low back pressure.

So you already know which one's going to be my favorite.

Here we go.

Yeah. What do you think?

Let me hear this one. Last one.

Gas in the face and to the left eye. Yeah. So I think the Velos, the first time I heard the, I had my ears off a little early for it and I got the first round pop. Now that I hear them all second round, they're pretty close. It's very close. It's hard to say which one. So if they're all pretty close of our favorite three and all of them are high back pressures with the exception of one guess which one wins.

The Velos K suppressor wins. Definitely my favorite and I might've predicted it. Definitely my favorite of the K suppressors, not the lightest, but no barrel length, full auto rated, low back pressure. And it sounds good. Favorite suppressor in the K category, Velos 556 K. All right. Now that we're back in the studio and tell you the truth, I'm happy to be out of the heat because it is currently 103 and there wasn't much of a breeze. So we got done with the testing. We need to get done and now we have the results. And I think you can gather from the video that we did pick a favorite. Now the concept of this video was to compare head to head and find what suppressors have what strengths and weaknesses. Now while I do still have that information for you, I think this video might turn into more of a what's Rob's favorite K suppressor because in the end there are several reasons why I have a new favorite. So let's start with a couple things. One, quiet. Of the K suppressors, we know they're not going to be terribly quiet because they're K suppressors. But having said that, the Velos was definitely in the top three for quiet. It's kind of got a little bit tough to tell because they are K suppressors. So comparing it to a full size isn't fair, but they're coming up on that full size sound reduction. So the Velos 556K did a great job. The BDE 556 also did a great job. And the YHM fat cat also was impressively quiet. So between the Ks, those three were good. And I think we also decided that the Griffin was the Griffin over here, the Explorer wasn't bad. Now I want to explain the layout I did here. This is the Griffin Explorer. Next to it I've got the HRT and the Reiss 5. The reason I put them all next to each other is so that you can see that they're all very compact and the HRT has its by locking system. So it makes it just a hair longer and they have a hub system or a mounting system that's proprietary and inside. And you can see as it lays next to the Explorer, unless you did a direct thread mount, this one's going to be a hair longer. So when I put the ASR on it, it's probably kind of in between these two in size. So we might have even considered including those two in the experiment. And if you want to see that in the next videos, just let me know. I kind of assumed that their internal baffle systems were similar enough that we could use the Explorer and it would be similar. Maybe I'll reach out to Griffin and see if that's accurate information or if they would want me to do that test again. But we did find some other reasons to do this test again. So we will consider doing it for a handful of reasons. But I just wanted to explain why these three are clustered together here. I also want to explain why the BDE, I put the additional two baffles to the side so that you could see that it's a modular suppressor and that there's room to go longer, shorter, and this is it in the shorter configuration, which I don't usually do a lot of testing on suppressors in shorter configurations. There's two more suppressors that we decided when we came back to the house that we could have also included and we weren't sure if we did a disservice by not including them. And that's the SilencerCo 36M. The 36M Silencer we've decided is a great silencer. It's impressive in so many ways, but it does have high back pressure. You know, I don't like that. However, it does have removable, I think it's three baffles on the end. And if we remove that, it brings it a little bit long but close to the K style suppressor. The other was the Surge X, that's the newer version of the Surge and that suppressor does have a removable baffle stack. That one is probably pushing it for too long. So we'll debate over on the next video if you guys want to see that in a head to head K suppressor comparison or mini 556 suppressor comparison. All right, so now having said that, let's break down our findings. What we found was the best. I mentioned the three that we decided were the quietest, arguably four that we decided were the quietest of them. Now on our website, you're going to find a lot more information, the whole spreadsheet, because some of you might say, "I want a silencer that does 6mm." And some of these suppressors will do 6mm, some of them will not. So that's 6mm Creedmoor, 6mm Arc. On our website, you'll find that information. Please do check out our website every time you go visit that. It kind of makes us look good, gives us more credibility. So even if you just poke around for a few minutes to look at our charts, that kind of stuff helps. If you really want to support our channel, if you pick up some of our swag or hats or shirts that really helps us pay for all the ammunition, range, time and time we're putting to make these videos. Because right now, nobody's giving us a penny. We are getting silencers for free from manufacturers, but we're still paying $200 transfer taxes on each one. So we're spending a lot of money, we're having a lot of fun, but the goal here is just to educate the consumer so that you can get the suppressor you want on the first shot. Okay so now, let's talk about light and small. So we did not bring out the Rotex K in the titanium. We only brought out the Inconel for testing because for today it served the same purpose. But the Inconel is, you know, light, but the titanium is 3 ounces. And I wanted to show it with a direct thread mount on it so that you can see there's one that even recesses inside. So you get like the tiniest and lightest package. So if you want, you know, okay I'm not worried terribly about the muzzle blast, I just want to cut down the explosion by say half. I don't want to feel it on the end of my gun and I don't want any added length. This is really your ticket to it because you're adding so little length and so little weight. So I wanted to give a moment to let this suppressor shine within a specific roll. And if that's the specific roll you're looking for, it's high back pressure, it's not terribly quiet but it's super tiny, super light. So just note that. In the end we found our absolute favorite which hands down no questions asked, the Velos 556K. The Velos 556K has a caveat. So you might say, well, everything about it is perfect except two things. It's not the lightest. It's not the heaviest, but it's not the lightest. So you know, especially compared to the 3 ounce guy, I think that it's plenty light for what it is being a reduced back pressure suppressor. And the other caveat is it uses the Charlie mounting system. So if whatever mounting system you like is not the Sionzico ASR system, it has to be compatible to the Charlie hub, not the typical Bravo hub. And when you say hub, you're usually referring to a Bravo hub. So there's plenty of other flavors you can choose from, me being an ASR guy anyways, I've got nothing but reasons to love this suppressor. I like this mounting system. So the only drawback I could fight you over is, okay, it's not the lightest in the stack. But in all other departments, it won by like a lot. The only one you could argue is next is like the back pressure because you don't hate back pressure. The Flow K does good in back pressure, but believe it or not, the Velos 556K outperformed the Huxworks Flow K. Let me tell you how. On both variants in 16 inch, they had the exact same settings in gas back pressure reduction. So both of them were a deviation of two ticks, which is only essentially 20% of what a full back pressure suppressor should be like. That's amazing. The last two I've had so far, it was always been the Flow K. The Velos 556K, I thought maybe would come close, but when I put it on the 11 fives, that's when it truly shined. The Huxworks Flow K gave me a setting seven, which is only a Delta of three. So I had to choke down three ticks worth of gas on my shorter configuration rifle. The 556K, the Velo Silencer Co was eight. So it was only two ticks of gas. So each tick represents like 10%. So that's actually quite a large deviation between these two suppressors. And the Velos is substantially quieter, in my opinion, than the Huxworks. Now I know there are some tests out there where people talk about at the ear, the suppressor is quiet. I don't have a decibel reader. I'm not going to buy a decibel reader. We do our own subjective sound testing, but it's the same day with both of our ears. And we're deciding from behind the camera, from behind the gun, which one we're thinking is more aggressive. And that's taking away the single data point of a number which is associated with a decibel reading. One that's very hard, very expensive, and controversial how you get that, especially if you get that information on different days. So what we're doing is listening to them on the same day at a prescribed distance, so that on that same day, whatever barometric pressure, atmosphere, tin roof, or otherwise, they're consistently being tested. And in the end, every time we test that Huxwork, it hurts our ears. I took off my ears a few times today and a couple times was upset about it. And every time I take my ears off for the Huxworks, I'm upset about it. Even on a 16-inch gun, it hurts my ears. So I believe that there's data out there that suggests it's the quietest suppressor on the market somehow, but it always rings my bell. Several of these other suppressors are much less offensive to the ear. And I believe that has to do with tone. That high-pitched tone, even at the same volume, is very offensive to the ears versus the lower-pitched tones. So far, the Velos line of suppressors, the 7.62 and the 5.56 full-size, I've been very happy with their deep-pitched tone and their incredible lack of back pressure. So to say that it under back pressure, it had less back pressure than the Flow K, is something special that we should take note of. To say that it's quieter than that suppressor is something to take note of. And that it's in the K class, I think that it's going to be very difficult for me to play with any other K suppressor when I have the Velos 5.56K. I'm confident that that is now my favorite K suppressor, hands down. The room for argument is going to be the 6mm stuff.

This guy is full auto-rated, no barrel-like restriction, all things I love. It won't do 6mm. So that's one caveat. The other caveat is if you want a modular silencer, you want the K and the full-size, the BDE offers you the full-size and the K, essentially.

Full back pressure suppressor, but it does sound good and has no barrel-like restriction. So that's a close contender to the suppressor. Other than that, I think the BNT Rotex K still has a place because it's so tiny and so light. So pick your adventure, as Chris from BNT would say, pick your own adventure. If you want super light, super tiny, the Rotex K is your ticket. Especially if you can go titanium because you're not doing full auto. You can do a little bit, they'll say you can't, but you can do a little bit of full auto with it. You'd rather have light than heavy duty in a lot of cases, but when you're talking about Ks, you're talking about room clearing, you're talking about potentially putting five rounds into somebody's chest quick for a non-standard response drill.

I like the idea that it's full auto-rated, and I have machine guns. So for me, full auto-rated is a big bonus. For you, it might not be necessary. So pay attention because in the near future, we're going to have some things that will help you find the suppressor you're looking for based on some of your criteria. Kind of like that, "Oh, I'm not going to tell you what silencer you should have. Let's have a conversation." We're coming up with a way to have that conversation in a very expeditious fashion. These are things you'll be finding on our website very soon. So the end state here is quite simply, the Velos 556K1 by a lot. It is hands down my favorite K suppressor. And if you're looking for a K suppressor, anybody who asks me, I'm going to point them in that direction with the exception of, "Hey, I want a modular full-size NK." Okay, then the BDE. If you say, "Hey, I want super light, super tiny." Okay, the Rotex K, whether it's the titanium or Inconel. If you say, "All things considered," and I like the ASR mounting system or Charlie style mounts, so that all things considered 100%, I'm going to recommend to you the Velos 556K. It's an outstanding suppressor and I really enjoyed shooting it today. And I think between myself and my camera guy, we wholeheartedly agree that's the silencer of the day. So in the end, Rob's new favorite, Velos 556K. If you liked this video, you found it educational and maybe it points you in the right direction for things you might want to buy or prevent you from spending money on your first silencer like I did on the Surefire 212 Mini. And why is it so loud? I didn't know K silencers weren't that quiet. Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way. And in fact, maybe I've learned a few times. In the end, I hope this saves you some money and helps you get the suppressor that you're looking for. As always, please do me a favor, hit that like button, comment, subscribe, throw something in that comment section. Even if it's silly, it really does help the algorithm. And if you like what we're doing, those positive comments really do mean the world to us. They feed us because we're making no money. We're just having fun. So please support our channel any way you can. As always, stay safe and we'll see you in the comment section.